Want to know the best Margaret Sullavan movies? How about the worst Margaret Sullavan movies? Curious about Margaret Sullavan box office grosses or which Margaret Sullavan movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Margaret Sullavan movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Margaret Sullavan (1909-1960) was an Oscar®-nominated American actress. Sullavan’s movie career was fairly brief…but she was considered one of the best actresses of her era. Margaret Sullavan’s IMDb page shows 21 acting credits from 1933-1954. This page will rank 16 Sullavan movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her television appearances and her unfinished movie, I Loved A Soldier, were not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by Lupino…who just discovered this website a couple of weeks ago.
Margaret Sullavan Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Margaret Sullavan Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Margaret Sullavan movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Margaret Sullavan movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Margaret Sullavan movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Margaret Sullavan movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Margaret Sullavan movie received.
- Sort Margaret Sullavan movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR)Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
Possibly Interesting Facts About Margaret Sullavan
1. Margaret Brooke Sullavan was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1909. Norfolk is only about 15 minutes from my house…so she is a hometown girl in my area.
2. One of Margaret Sullavan’s first acting experiences was in a summer stock group called the University Players. Others in that group? James Stewart and Henry Fonda.
3. Margaret Sullavan was starring in Broadway plays in the early 1930s. In 1932 she starred in four straight flops….one co-starred Humphrey Bogart.
4. Despite being in numerous flops on Broadway….Sullavan’s personal stellar reviews in those plays earned her a movie contract with Universal Pictures.
5. Margaret Sullavan turned down Claudette Colbert’s role in 1934’s It Happened One Night. Colbert would win an Oscar® for her performance.
6. Margaret Sullavan was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar® for 1938’s Three Comrades.
7. Margaret Sullavan was married four times and had three children. Her first marriage was to Henry Fonda…while her second marriage was to William Wyler.
8. Sadly Margaret Sullavan took her own life in 1960. Equally tragic is that two of children did the same thing. Her third child, Brook Hayward, is happily alive and well. Hayward is an actress and author. She wrote the best selling book Haywire which told of her childhood with Sullavan.
9. We have worldwide adjusted grosses on three of her movies: 1938’s Three Comrades $255 million, 1938’s The Shining Hour $170.60 million and 1938’s Shopworn Angel $130.20 million.
10. Maureen Sullavan and her Easy Rider (1969) connections. Sullavan’s daughter Brook Hayward was married to Dennis Hopper who starred and directed that massive hit. Meanwhile, Peter Fonda who starred and produced that massive hit, was in love with Sullavan’s youngest daughter….Bridget. Fonda would later name his daughter after Sullavan’s daughter. Bridget Fonda was an actress that made movies for almost 20 years before retiring in 2002.
10. Check out Margaret Sullavan‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
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Hi
I’ve only seen about 4 of her movies, The Mortal Storm, The Shopworn Angel, Three Comrades and best of all The Shop Around The Corner. I always thought she was something very special on screen, she had a waif like quality, great at both drama and comedy. It’s so sad that she didn’t go on to make more movies. And even sadder that she didn’t become a superstar.
As I said, The Shop Around the Corner is my favourite, in fact one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. A simple little story about a group of workers in a gift shop, all the ups and downs. The cast were simply fantastic. They remade it as a musical with Judy Garland and Meg Ryan with You’ve Got Mail, both good movies in their own right. But not quite the same standard as the original.
I was sad to hear of her suicide and that 2 of her children died the same way. I read somewhere that she was married to Henry Fonda at one time.
Anyway she shone very briefly. Thanks for the page.
Hey Chris….thanks for checking out our Margaret Sullavan page. Your tally of 4 was good enough for a silver medal in our international movie tally contest….congrats…I know proud day..lol. See tally below. It would seem that Shop Around The Corner is the consensus pick as her favorite number….even though Three Comrades has the better stats….I actually had not heard of this movie before…although I looked it researched it when we did our Robert Taylor page…just did not remember it.
Yep the suicides in her family are very very tragic….her first hubby was Fonda…and her second hubby was legendary director William Wyler..seems she and Fonda stayed friendly….as Jane Fonda was best friends with Sullavan’s children. Good comment as always…thank you.
Lupini from Germany 13 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Chris from Ireland 4 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Flora from Canada 3 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
SteinHOF from ???? 1 Margaret Sullavan movie watched
BERN1960 fom Canada 1 Margaret Sullavan movie watched
Steve from England 0 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Cogerson from USA 0 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
There is only 1 actor on the current Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list who worked with Margaret and he died 20 years ago.
Cry Havoc (1943) – 809 Robert Mitchum
By my count I find that Margaret appeared with 10 Oscar winners in her pics, not bad for only 16 features and 1 short and no all star studio musicals.
Next Time We Love (1936) – Ray Milland, James Stewart, Hattie McDaniel
Only Yesterday (1933) – Jane Darwell
So Ends Our Night (1941) – Fredric March
The Moon’s Our Home (1936) – Henry Fonda, Walter Brennan
The Mortal Storm (1940) – James Stewart
The Shining Hour (1938) – Melvyn Douglas, Hattie McDaniel, Joan Crawford
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) – James Stewart, Joseph Schildkraut
The Shopworn Angel (1938) – James Stewart, Hattie McDaniel
Margaret connects to 5 of the current top 10 on The Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list in 2 steps.
Samuel L. Jackson was in The Exorcist III (1990) with Viveca Lindfors who is in No Sad Songs for Me (1950)
Harvey Keitel was in Welcome to L.A. (1976) with Viveca Lindfors
Malcolm McDowell was in Time After Time (1979) with one Rita Conde who is in No Sad Songs
for Me (1950)
Donald Sutherland was in Promise Her Anything (1966) with Robert Cummings who is in So Red The Rose (1935)
Donald was in Johnny Got His Gun (1971) with Marsha Hunt who was in Cry Havoc (1943) with Margaret.
Don was in Day of the Locust (1975) with Florence Lake who is in Only Yesterday (1933) with Margaret. Florence is the sister of Arthur Lake who played Dagwood in the Blondie movies and she played Edgar Kennedy’s wife in numerous shorts.
Michael Caine was in Too Late the Hero (1970) and The Swarm (1978) with Henry Fonda who is in The Moon’s Our Home (1936) with Margaret.
Michael was in Peeper (1976) with one Dorothy Adams who is Back Street (1941) with Margaret
Michael was in The Hand (1981) with Viveca Lindfors
Eric Roberts, Michael Madsen, Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro and Willem Dafoe do not connect to Margaret in 2 steps. Robert D Niro came close. Bob, Donald Sutherland and Michael Caine all appeared in a film with Lionel Stander who was in the cancelled I Loved a Soldier (1936).
Hey Dan.
1. Well at least the last remaining Oracle star is a legend…as Mr. Robert Mitchum is an AFI Screen Legend.
2. You are right 10 Oscar winning co-stars in 16 movies is not bad at all.
3. 5 out of the Top 10 is really impressive….good to see Michael Caine is one of those connectors…love the Caine trivia.
4. You are right…DeNiro came close…I imagine the makes of I Loved A Soldier could not believe all of their bad luck in getting that movie made.
5. Great Oracle lists on an actress that has not made a movie in 77 years.
🙂
Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war. I’ve scanned the list up and down and have to confess I haven’t seen a single Margaret Sullavan film [cue gasps] not even The Chip Shop on the Corner.
I did see the remake of Shop Around the Bend – You’ve Got Mail – if that’s any consolation.
An interesting page Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve…..right there with you….the only Margaret Sullavan movie I have come close to seeing is You’ve Got Mail. I find that strange considering how many movie we have watched in our combined lifetimes of watching movies….still a tally count must go on…even if we sit at the bottom
Lupini from Germany 13 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Chris from Ireland 4 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Flora from Canada 3 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
SteinHOF from ???? 1 Margaret Sullavan movie watched
BERN1960 fom Canada 1 Margaret Sullavan movie watched
Steve from England 0 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Cogerson from USA 0 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
HI BRUCE
1 When I started watching movies in the 1950s Margaret had stopped making them so I paid her scant attention initially and indeed when I occasionally came across her name I confused her with Maureen O’Sullivan. What finally registered Margaret properly with me was her three movies with Jimmy Stewart who as you know was one of my top 3 1950s idols. Unfortunately I can’t remember Margaret’s performance in The Shining Hour. But that’s understandable as just as there is room for only one Christ figure when Monty Clift’s in a movie, for me when watching another person with the initials J C there is really only one actress in that film. Although WW grosses have been given for only 3 of Margaret’s flicks one of them WAS The Shining Hour a top-billed Joan Crawford movie and I always welcome ANY reference to the Great Joan’s movies even if she is just second billed which as John and you know was very rarely..
2 Margaret’s time as an active performer of stage, TV and cinema is officially listed as 31 years from 1929 until 1960 but as the table above illustrates little more than half of that timespan was spent in making movies (1933-1950) and one reason given for that is her possible preference for the stage.
3 Although I am unfamiliar with her work in the movies apart from the three Jimmy Stewart films and Three Comrades she is with hindsight someone whom I can now admire despite her personal flaws because she was apparently a strong-minded, principled woman who for example in Kirk Douglas mindset stood up to pressure from the Motion Picture Alliance to sack a screenwriter because his alleged political views were out of favour. Also according to Eddie Mannix of MGM Margaret was one of the few stars who stood up to “bullying” by Louis B Mayer. I therefore welcome this Cogerson page that has been devoted to Margaret. Well done Bruce.
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Margaret Sullavan.
2. This is one movie subject that I know almost nothing about….but I do want to see her A Shop Around The Corner.
3. Seems she, Henry Fonda and James Stewart were some awesome friends back in their University summer club days.
4. I agree…her pretty limited movie career was due to her stage work…..seems that was her first love….as she turned down a few movie contracts to stay on Broadway.
5. I think many of us get her and Maureen O’Sullivan mixed up….good to know that I am not alone when it comes to that.
6. Good to know that she stood up to Louis B. Mayer….don’t imagine that happened too often.
Good stuff as always 🙂
As you say Margaret was friends with Henry and indeed as we know she was married to him for a time. However apparently she could be highly temperamental and it is reported that on one occasion she lost her temper and threw a bucket of ice water round Fonda in company. Henry though as I understand it remained dignified and did not retaliate..
Hey Bob….thanks for the story on Margaret and Fonda….marriage can certainly create some difficult situations when things are not going well. I can see Mr. Fonda remaining calm cool and collective. 🙂
Hello, Bruce.
I have seen The Shop Around the Corner every Christmas for a long time. However, I have only seen 3 of Margaret’s movies. I thought I had seen more, but I have not. The other two I have seeen are Three Comrades and The Shopworn Angel.
By the way, The Shop Around The Corner was also remade with Judy Garland and Van Johnson.
Hey Flora…..thanks for the comment…and the first one as well. Good stuff 🙂 Thanks for the information on Shop Around the Corner…I was not aware that Garland and Johnson had done the story too. Shop Around The Corner is one of her movies I really want to see. Currently my tally is 0….I know I am ashamed too….lol.
Tally counts….I looked ahead at the other comments.
Lupini from Germany 13 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Chris from Ireland 4 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Flora from Canada 3 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
SteinHOF from ???? 1 Margaret Sullavan movie watched
BERN1960 fom Canada 1 Margaret Sullavan movie watched
Steve from England 0 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
Cogerson from USA 0 Margaret Sullavan movies watched
The Judy Garland Van Johnson film is titled In the Good Old Summertime, after the song sung at the beginning of the film
Thanks for that information….seems Good Old Summertime rarely gets mentioned when people are talking about Shop Around The Corner and You’ve Got Mail. Equally good to know that is comes from the song. Good stuff….thanks again. 🙂